Sen. John Kerry testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become the next Secretary of State on Capitol Hill on Jan. 24, 2013.

That’s how many votes Sen. John Kerry received yesterday as he was confirmed by the Senate to be the next secretary of state.

Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, received the same number of votes for confirmation as his predecessor, former Sen. and first lady Hillary Clinton, who became the top U.S. diplomat in 2009.

After Kerry’s easy confirmation, “attention will turn to Obama’s more contentious choices for other national security positions,” including Chuck Hagel for defense secretary, Bloomberg’s Indira A.R. Lakshmanan wrote yesterday.

Kerry’s confirmation also paves the way for him to resign the Senate seat he has held since 1985. Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick will appoint an interim senator who will serve through a special election on June 25. Democratic Rep. Ed Markey is running in the special election.

The dissenters were Republicans Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Texans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. Kerry voted “present.”